(By Delegates Boggs and Guthrie)
[Introduced February 13, 2013; referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources then the Judiciary.]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §19-1A-6, relating to
establishing the Forest Product Fairness Act.Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §19-1A-6, to read as
follows:ARTICLE 1A. DIVISION OF FORESTRY.§19-1A-6. Forest Product Fairness.(a) This section may be cited as the Forest Fairness Act.
_____(b) The agricultural policy of this state must recognize that
forestry and the forest products industry have been and continue to
be an integral part of the state's economic, historic, and cultural
development. Forestry and the forest products industry:
_____(1) Directly and indirectly create tens of thousands of jobs
in all regions of the state in both primary agricultural and value-
added processing, manufacturing, and distribution employment;
_____(2) Provide a significant tax base and source of revenue for
state and local governments; and
_____(3) Preserve the forests through sustainable forestry
practices and renewal of forest resources.
_____(c) In order to maintain and encourage a strong and
competitive forest products industry and notwithstanding any
provision in this code, no state incentive, subsidy, price support
program, mandate, requirement, or target of any kind shall be
established that has the direct or indirect effect of conferring an
economic advantage to benefit a user or class of users of forest
raw material, unless such economic advantage is conferred on an
equal basis to all users or class or users of forest raw material.
_____(d) For purposes of this section, "forest raw material" means
forest wood waste, including residual tops and limbs of trees, cull
trees, thinning, wood or debris from noncommercial tree species,
slash, brush, wood chips, merchantable and nonmerchantable timber,
fibers, storm-generated debris from tree species, solid wood waste
material, landscape or right-of-way trimmings, energy-dedicated
wood crops consisting of fast-growing tree species, and products
that are derived from woody biomass.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish the Forest
Product Fairness Act.